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Trump ready to veto background check bills: Extensive regulations incompatible with 2nd Amendment

February 26, 2019 | | Print Article
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Legislation on background checks for gun purchases could stall out at President Trump’s desk, the White House warned.

In a statement issued on Monday, the White House indicated that if H.R. 8 and H.R. 1112,  pass the House and Senate, Trump will respond with a veto, The Hill reported.

(Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Democrats are expected to pass the bills with little GOP support in the House this week, moving them forward to the Republican-controlled Senate for approval before reaching the president.

H.R. 8, being called the ‘‘Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019,’’ seeks to expand universal background checks, requiring private transactions like purchases at gun shows and those made online to be subject to the same check.

The other bill, H.R. 1112, referred to as the ‘‘Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019,’’ looks to increase the wait time for a background check response from three days to 20 days. The bill aims to remove the so-called loophole that allowed the shooter to buy the gun used at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church massacre in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.

“The extensive regulation required by H.R. 8 is incompatible with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to keep arms,” the White House statement read.

“By overly extending the minimum time that a licensed entity is required to wait for background check results, H.R. 1112 would unduly impose burdensome delays on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm,” it continued, adding that if the bills “are presented to the President, his advisors would recommend he veto the bill.”

Rep. Gabby Giffords is lobbying for the legislation on Capitol Hill. H.R. 8, was introduced last month on the eight-year anniversary of the shooting that wounded the Arizona Democrat and others while leaving six people dead. But Rep. Steve Scalise, himself the victim of a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice in 2017, is opposed to the legislation which he believes would have done nothing to stop the gunman who almost took his life.

The Louisiana Republican was, not surprisingly, prevented from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last month during hearings on the bill. So the Republican Whip issued his own statement.

“The new gun control restrictions currently being considered by the Democratic majority in H.R. 8 would not have prevented my shooting,” he said, noting that the measure “could turn law abiding citizens into criminals while also failing to achieve the stated purpose of reducing gun violence.”

Opponents of the bill have argued that the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. would also not have been prevented by the bill as the shooter had passed a background check.

Legal policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, Amy Swearer, noted flaws in the legislation which ignores studies concluding that universal background checks have no effect on crime rates. Also, citizens looking to legally use their Second Amendment right and purchase firearms would be forced to pay for a background check from a for-profit federal firearms licensee, creating a “de facto monopoly.”

Swearer also noted that law-abiding individuals could become felons by making simple “good-faith mistakes” and slammed the measure for making no exemption for concealed carry permit-holders.

Meanwhile, in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state’s new “Red Flag Bill” which allows law enforcement, family members or even school officials the ability to get a court order that would confiscate guns from someone they deem is an “extreme risk” to themselves or others.

Twitter users weighed in on the bills that could be headed to Trump’s desk.

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Frieda Powers
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